What Matters
by YamiPaladinofChaos
Summary: [Harry x Ginny] Amid the ashes of his life, only victory matters.


Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter. I do hope one day to be as good as J.K. is at writing, though.

AN: This came about thanks to a line from Yu Yu Hakusho. Major character deaths!

* * *

Harry James Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, stood at the gates of Hogwarts, which could almost have been the gates of Heaven, being assailed by Hell.

Vampires, Trolls, Dementors, and the worst scum man has to offer.

Hell's armies, complete with the Devil himself.

Lord Voldemort, alias Tom Marvolo Riddle, walked up to the gates alone, confident and cocky.

Harry James Potter stands with his small, determined contigent of fighters. The remnants of the Order of the Phoenix who hadn't died in the attack in the attack on Diagon Alley, and the members of Dumbledore's Army, the D.A.

Next to him is Albus Dumbledore. The two figureheads of the Light side of the war had a strained relationship, with Harry not fully trusting Dumbledore, and Dumbledore respectfully giving Harry his space.

Every month, then every week, then every day, Voldemort kept attacking. Pretty soon the Daily Prophet was gone. Not much of a loss.

Harry had been figuratively shooting the messenger for a long time now. Every death slashed into his soul, every burnt out soul was a burn on his skin, every destroyed life took a piece of him with it.

That had been Purgatory for Harry, save for his angel.

Ginerva Weasley.

Together with his oldest best friends Ron and Hermione, his new best friends Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom, his wonderful angel was what kept him from going insane. He found his life back on the rise during sixth year, piecing himself back together.

Until Neville and Luna died.

It was Bellatrix who took both of them, while Neville took Luna to see his parents on Christmas Day. She killed Neville's parents in front of him, and then took Luna away too.

Neville put up a fight it seemed, with Bellatrix losing an arm and an ear, but in the end, Evil prevailed that day.

Harry was the one who had their bodies delivered to him on New Years Eve.

Harry had found Bellatrix weeks later, and killed her with Neville's wand. He killed her slowly, and he even used the Cruciatus Curse.

And he meant it that time.

And so sixth year came to a close, and his group that had expanded had fractured with the deaths of two members. It was then that the Battle at Diagon Alley had happened, that disastrous battle.

But Harry persevered. His support links were damaged, not destroyed utterly. Harry could still function, was still holding himself aloft.

Until Halloween of his seventh year.

Voldemort was a bastard, but he knew how to make painful and fitting plans.

That night, he didn't take Harry or Ginny, who were under the heaviest guards and who were the most paranoid.

He took Ron and Hermione.

They didn't find out until November second.

Ronald Bilius Weasley and Hermione Jane Granger had been brutally murdered by Lord Voldemort. He dumped their bodies on one morning with a Portkey, right into breakfast.

They had violated Hermione, probably forcing Ron to watch, and then they killed them.

Then, to add insult to injury, they sent them back to Harry. A kind gesture of Evil.

Harry didn't sleep or eat for a long time. But Ginny was still there.

The Light remained in its purest form.

He was a poison flower. She should not have come and loved him, he told her.

But Ginny wouldn't leave him. Ginny was too proud, too in love with him.

So now she stood by him before the Army of Hell.

"Greetings Tom." Harry called out.

Lord Voldemort narrowed his eyes. "This will be your last defiance of me, Potter."

"We shall see." Harry said.

And then the Army of Hell was upon the valiant defenders of Light.

* * *

Harry fought to reach Voldemort, knowing what Voldemort held.

It was why they didn't hole up in the castle Hogwarts.

Why they forced Voldemort with a few key moves to strike them here.

Lord Voldemort had a powerful weapon, equivalent to a muggle bomb. It would demolish Hogwart's defenses in seconds, and the walls with it.

That would be easy.

But so would be crushing an army in an open field.

Ron would laugh at Harry's tactics.

Except Ron was dead.

Mione too.

Voldemort would join them soon, Harry vowed again.

Harry was two things nowadays. Hatred for Voldemort, and Love for Ginny. Light and Dark in its purest forms was all he was. anymore.

And there he was, all of a sudden.

"Tom Riddle," Harry greeted, bowing.

"Potter, you will not refer to me by that name." Voldemort growled, but said nothing else.

"Let us end this." Harry said.

"Lets." Voldemort agreed, grinning maliciously.

The battle began.

Harry launched a powerful spell, then Voldemort launched an Unforgivable, they'd trade shots, dodge, roll, fire, etc., etc.

Harry's hatred however, gave him an edge in his power. Emotions build on power.

But Voldemort had a contingency plan for that. The moment the Incapacitation Spell nearly ripped him from consciousness, Voldemort shouted, "Now!"

"Harry!"

Harry Potter spun around to see Ginny Weasley in the clutches of Draco Malfoy.

"You bastard." Harry roared, but dared not move. His wand was at Ginny's neck.

"You will surrender!" Voldemort hissed.

"Never!" Harry swore.

"Then watch your love die!" Voldemort roared.

"Fight me you bastard!" Harry roared, turning towards Voldemort.

"Surrender!"

Harry growled, but could not say no. Ginny's life was on the line. He put his wand down to the floor.

"Fool." Voldemort hissed, and Summoned his wand, before firing off a Killing Curse at Harry, who would never avoid it fast enough.

He didn't have to.

An effeminate male (Malfoy) screamed in pain, and then wind rushed past Harry, and then a scream of frustration and a yell of love.

Harry opened his eyes to see that another woman who loved him died for him, died at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Dead brown eyes stared at him lifelessly, as red hair spilled around her head, a death veil.

* * *

Within Harry, a resonance echoed. A deep, profound loss was shaking his very core.

Ginny Weasley was dead.

That couldn't be.

It couldn't possibly… there was no…

What in the world could possibly be right, if Harry had none of his friends, his Ginny with him?

What was left to fight for?

What mattered?

Something within Harry Potter clicked at that moment, and the lights flickered on.

He knew what mattered now.

* * *

"Feel your loss," Voldemort hissed softly, "Feel the pain."

Harry only looked numb, lost in thoughts.

"Suffer, Harry Potter. Suffer and know I am your superior before you die." The Dark Lord hissed, "Will you die there, on the ground?"

"No." Harry whispered quietly, his voice steel. "I will kill you."

"You can't stop me from destroying this school," Voldemort hissed, breaking Harry's thoughts.

Harry laughed, causing many people, including the Dark Lord, to look at him strangely. "I know that." He said firmly. "And I don't care."

Now everyone looked surprised, especially the self-proclaimed Dark Lord.

"The world ends, the world survives," Harry said softly, before his voice hardened into steel, "I don't fucking care."

He turned towards Lord Voldemort, glaring at him with all the hatred in his heart. "All I care about is seeing your head on my mantle. I want to see you burn in Hell, to see you die before I go." The tone of voice was strong and his emerald eyes were burning with conviction. "I don't care about any of this anymore. I want to see you die, and I'll do it myself. Screw the world."

"Harry, think about what you are saying!" Dumbledore shouted in the background, weakened from his exertions.

Harry turned towards Dumbledore, sad and tired, glancing at Ginny's dead body. "I have. All that matters to me is lying in the dirt, dead. Except one thing. The only that matters to me anymore is whether or not you end up six feet under before I die.

"Light, Dark, Good, Evil, I've spent a long time philosophizing over what is what." Harry said, before looking disgusted. "I wasted my time. Those are just words. The truth is, there is no absolute truth. Life is change. Truth changes. Paradise turns to Hell. And now I understand what I must do."

The blazing fire returned into Harry Potter's eyes as he turned towards his mortal foe. "So, do you have the stones to fight me?" Harry asked cockily, challenging Lord Voldemort. "Cause it looks like it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel like kicking some arse."

"Then let us keep going." Voldemort hissed, bowing at the same time as the Boy-Who-Lived.

Once more, the battle raged furiously. Again, Harry had the upper hand, until Voldemort forcibly summoned a new hostage. Nymphadora Tonks.

Harry lashed out with a spell that killed her and seriously wounded Voldemort.

Tom Marvolo Riddle looked up at him in shock. "What in the bloody hell are you doing Potter?"

"I told you, I only want you dead. Nothing more." Harry said dispassionately, pausing to dodge a Killing Curse. "I don't care who gets in my way."

The stone behind them, the one that could demolish the school, glowed fiercely, but Harry no longer cared about saving the school or the world. The world, this school, his one-time home, was nothing to him anymore.

Voldemort summoned up Hestia Jones, but Harry killed her apathetically too with a Cannonball Spell that blasted Voldemort's leg off.

Voldemort screamed in agony and fell. In desperation, he summoned someone no one expected.

"Accio Albus Dumbledore!"

Despite his power, Dumbledore wasn't prepared and was thrown in front of Voldemort as a shield. "Harry?" Dumbledore whispered fearfully, looking into eyes of apathy.

The next words out of Harry's mouth would either save or damn.

The next words out of Harry's mouth were words of damnation, an Inferno Spell that burned both Voldemort and Dumbledore in one go.

With one spell, Harry watched the death of two people who had influenced his life, good or bad, burn in a magical inferno that could not be stopped by either surprised wizard.

Harry watched it with the way one would watch the seasons pass. With a nod, a consideration, and a little eagerness for the next part, the next season.

And when the two most powerful wizards besides himself had finished burning, Harry simply nodded, and walked away.

The Battle of Hogwarts was a victory for the Light, with many retreating, and the stone that Voldemort brought detonating, leaving a field of bodies and ashes and unmarked graves. But more survived on the Light Side.

Hogwarts still stood, and Good had triumphed.

But neither had a protector.

Harry James Potter walked away from Life that day, walked away because there was nothing more to do.

He had nothing more that mattered.

They found his corpse three days later, at Godric's Hollow.

* * *

AN: Well, that was a bit dark. Don't really know why I wrote it. The speech about what matters from Harry is taken from Yu Yu Hakusho, which I don't own. (Looks over at how angsty it is) That's the last time I spend a day in solitude, watching uncut Yu Yu Hakusho. Thanks for reading and please review!


End file.
